Breakaway (Space: 1999)
| "Breakaway" | |
|---|---|
| Space 1999 episode | |
 |
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| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 1 |
| Directed by | Lee H. Katzin |
| Written by | George Bellak |
| Original air date | 4 September 1975 |
"Breakaway" is the first episode of the first series of Space: 1999. The screenplay was written by George Bellak (with an uncredited rewrite by story consultant Christopher Penfold); the director was Lee H. Katzin. Previous titles include "Zero-G", "The Void Ahead" and "Turning Point". The final shooting script is dated 22 November 1973. Live-action filming took place from Monday 3 December 1973 to Friday 11 January 1974 (with appropriate breaks for the holidays). A three-day re-mount took place Friday 22 February 1974 to Tuesday 26 February 1974.
The date is 9 September 1999. An Eagle transporter has landed at Nuclear Disposal Area Two on the far side of the Moon. The isolated site is a vast repository for atomic waste shipped from Earth. Automated handling equipment unloads numerous lead drums from the craft, lowering them into one of the many storage shafts dug into the lunar surface. During this operation, two space-suited technicians enter the restricted area. The men begin a methodical survey of the radiation-proof synthocrete covers sealing the shafts, searching for the slightest indication of radiation leakage.
The operation is under the supervision of Professor Victor Bergman and Doctor Helena Russell, whose attention is focused more on the 'scopes recording the men's vital signs than the radiation detectors. As they watch, the brain-wave patterns of one man, Jim Nordstrom, go haywire. After suffering an apparent seizure, the man goes berserk. He attacks his co-worker then runs into the laser barrier which surrounds the restricted area. Nordstrom is repelled and falls, smashing his helmet open on a rock. One unnaturally opaque green eye stares sightlessly through the splintered visor as he dies from explosive decompression.
During this, Eagle Two is seen en route to the Moon. Its sole passenger is John Koenig, the newly appointed commander of Moonbase Alpha, a self-sustaining lunar colony built by the nations of Earth as a centre for space research and exploration. Gerald Simmonds, chief executive of the World Space Commission, calls to impress upon Koenig that nothing must delay his first assignment: the launch of the manned deep-space probe to the planet Meta. A virus infection plaguing the Meta Probe astronauts and other operatives on the Moon must not be an obstacle.
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